Chapter 62: Magpie

Through the shifts in Liao Tianhua’s emotions, Xia Mi detected a subtle sense of dissonance.

The true goal of the boss behind the scenes was to seduce her and replace her. If that were the case, it should have focused solely on dealing with her. Why bother replacing the version of her that existed in Liao Tianhua’s mind?

It wasn’t that the boss couldn’t do this, but if it was going to replace the impression of Xia Mi in someone else’s heart, why only target Liao Tianhua? Why not also replace the impressions held by Mi Xiangyan and Qiu Hailan?

Whether it was the Fake Old Jiao replacing the Xia Mi in Liao Tianhua’s heart, or the fact that the target of Mi Xiangyan and Qiu Hailan’s suspicion had shifted from the Fake Old Jiao to Liao Tianhua, there was one key factor involved.

Liao Tianhua.

Why was Liao Tianhua so important?

The secrets hidden within this nest were gradually taking shape in Xia Mi’s mind, though a few puzzle pieces were still missing.

It seemed that simply continuing to avoid the Fake Old Jiao wouldn’t allow her to gather those remaining pieces.

Xia Mi decided to go meet this Fake Old Jiao in person.

Her current understanding of this dungeon was insufficient. Rashly using the “second game” would very likely result in wasting her only opportunity. It was better to proceed cautiously in reality first and search for clues.

The game had already taught Xia Mi how to handle the Fake Old Jiao: essentially, give him a bit of a friendly face so he wouldn’t self-destruct.

And so, Xia Mi said to Liao Tianhua, “That’s fine. Keep on liking her then.”

With that, she left Liao Tianhua’s office.

Liao Tianhua chased after her, shouting from behind, “Who are you exactly? A new officer from the Second Team? What’s your name?”

Xia Mi, however, had already ducked into the stairwell, heading for the seventeenth floor like a bolt of lightning.

With Xia Mi’s current physical fitness, sprinting from the 3rd floor to the 17th in one breath was like walking on level ground. She was faster than the elevator.

A dozen seconds later, Xia Mi kicked open the door to the Chief’s office.

The Fake Old Jiao was currently posing in front of a mirror, trying to find his most handsome angle. He hadn’t expected Xia Mi to barge straight in like this.

He froze for a moment before saying, “Why are you here so soon?”

Xia Mi swaggered over and sat in Old Jiao’s office chair, propping her legs up on the desk. She said leisurely, “Didn’t you ask me to come?”

The Fake Old Jiao quickly flashed a fawning smile. “Yes, yes, I did. I just didn’t expect you to get here so fast.”

Under Xia Mi’s remote guidance, the Fake Old Jiao had finally put on his formal service uniform and washed off the heavy makeup. Although Old Jiao’s face wasn’t particularly handsome, he was at least presentable now.

Xia Mi glanced at the Fake Old Jiao’s white shirt¹ and offered a sincere compliment. “The shirt looks very good.”

The shirt colors for Senior Chiefs, Chiefs, and regular officers were different. The shirt Xia Mi had received was light blue, but the shirts for Senior Chiefs at the division level and above were pure white.

A white shirt represented status.

The real Old Jiao had driven his private car from home to the station and hadn’t been wearing his formal uniform. His duty jacket, which bore his rank, had been stolen along with the car. When Xia Mi saw him, he was wearing navy blue police trousers and a police sweater, looking like an ordinary retired old man. He held zero charm for Xia Mi.

But this formal uniform on the Fake Old Jiao, the rank on his shoulders, and that white shirt were currently quite dazzling.

Xia Mi felt a bit dazed, her gaze momentarily turning hazy.

The Fake Old Jiao sensed the thick desire and emotion radiating from Xia Mi.

Overjoyed, he leaned in close to her, his gaze focused and deep.

Xia Mi suddenly grabbed the Fake Old Jiao by his tie.

The Fake Old Jiao swallowed nervously and said, “Xia Mi, I…”

“Call me Director Xia,” Xia Mi commanded.

“Director Xia, I…”

Xia Mi continued, “Old Jiao, go brew me a cup of tea.”

With that, she released his tie and gave him a shove, gesturing with her eyes for him to pour the water.

The Fake Old Jiao looked as if he had just woken from a dream, his expression filled with disappointment.

Seeing the expectant look in Xia Mi’s eyes, he still obediently went to rummage for tea leaves and a cup in the cabinet.

Watching the Fake Old Jiao busy himself, Xia Mi felt immensely gratified.

She had really been looking at this the wrong way before.

She had only viewed this incident as a crisis, a Domain that had to be neutralized as quickly as possible, and the Fake Old Jiao as an enemy that had to be killed on sight.

But sitting in Old Jiao’s chair, her mood suddenly shifted.

Why not take this opportunity to enjoy herself a bit?

Earlier, the real Old Jiao had looked at her with a face full of disappointment, probably thinking “Xia Mi’s ability is still lacking” a thousand times in his head. Even though she clearly felt he was a drag, she still had to maintain a basic level of respect for him.

That bit of pent-up frustration could be fully taken out on this Fake Old Jiao.

Since the Fake Old Jiao wanted to seduce her, he’d better show some attitude.

This was likely a perk of the game mission that players had to discover for themselves.

While Xia Mi was thinking smugly, she turned her head and saw Liao Tianhua standing at the door, his face deathly pale. There was no telling how long he had been watching.

Xia Mi immediately took her feet off the desk, her expression turning more serious as she asked, “When did you get here?”

Liao Tianhua said, “I followed you here from the very beginning.”

Xia Mi cleared her throat. “So you saw everything?”

Liao Tianhua nodded.

Xia Mi rubbed her nose, feeling a bit awkward.

She suddenly remembered that Liao Tianhua liked her. Was it perhaps a bit inappropriate for him to have seen that scene?

At that moment, the Fake Old Jiao walked over carrying a cup of tea, smiling suggestively. “The tea is ready. I’ll test the temperature for you first.”

He took a sip, then said, “The temperature is just right.”

He placed the teacup on the desk, calculatingly positioning the side he had drunk from right in front of Xia Mi.

Xia Mi glanced at it and noticed a lipstick mark on the rim. She couldn’t help but curse inwardly that this old fogey was still wearing light-colored lipstick.

She couldn’t help but steal another glance at Liao Tianhua, who remained standing outside the door.

Then Xia Mi remembered again. Liao Tianhua didn’t like her right now; he liked the Fake Old Jiao.

She wondered what Xiao Liao was feeling as he stood there watching this scene.

Liao Tianhua’s heart felt sour and bitter.

Just now, he hadn’t been thinking at all. He had followed this new officer out instinctively, only stopping when he reached the door of the Chief’s office.

Standing by the door, watching the interaction between the new officer and Deputy Director Jiao, Liao Tianhua felt a deep sense of conflict.

He wasn’t even sure who this bitterness was directed toward.

He knew he liked Jiao Xingjian, but it was an admiration he had never voiced, a love society would never accept. Liao Tianhua had never intended to speak of it. Yet, when the new officer questioned him earlier, he didn’t know what had come over him; the secret buried in his heart had simply slipped out.

His consciousness wanted to hide it, but his body had acted first, telling the truth to this newcomer.

Now, seeing Jiao Xingjian acting so intimately with the new officer, Liao Tianhua didn’t feel much resentment toward her. Instead, he worried that she was so young that she might be deceived by the old man.

While Liao Tianhua was lost in these thoughts, Xia Mi suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

It was a strange sensation.

It felt as if space itself were rotating, as if she were flickering back and forth across the edge of the Domain, inside one moment and outside the next.

Every entry or exit from a Domain caused a spatial shift, making everyone feel a brief moment of vertigo. But the dizziness Xia Mi felt just now was like hundreds of those spatial shifts stacked on top of each other within a single second, nearly making her vomit.

Xia Mi shook her head, her vision still slightly blurred. She saw Fake Old Jiao looking as if he had been drinking bootleg liquor, his footsteps unsteady as he gripped a table to remain standing.

So it wasn’t just her; Fake Old Jiao was dizzy too. However, she was recovering the fastest, while Fake Old Jiao had yet to regain his bearings.

Xia Mi looked toward Liao Tianhua, only to see him still standing perfectly straight by the door, seemingly unaffected.

While she was wondering about this, Fake Old Jiao dry-heaved twice, then immediately walked over to Liao Tianhua. Grabbing Liao Tianhua’s hand, he said, “Captain Liao, I have something to discuss with you. Come, walk with me to the meeting room.”

Fake Old Jiao didn’t forget to look back and say to Xia Mi, “Director Xia, wait for me a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Fake Old Jiao led Liao Tianhua away by the wrist, remembering to close the office door behind them, leaving Xia Mi alone in the room.

Xia Mi thought for a moment, then picked up the office landline and called Mi Xiangyan’s office. “Group Leader Mi, did you just feel dizzy?”

Mi Xiangyan didn’t speak; only the sound of dry-heaving came through the phone.

Xia Mi continued, “Vice Captain Qiu, are you in Group Leader Mi’s office? Are you dizzy?”

Soon, she heard Qiu Hailan’s voice: “Dizzy, ugh!”

Xia Mi decisively hung up and sent a message to the real Old Jiao underground using her mobile phone: “Dizzy?”

After a while, Old Jiao replied with a simple “1.” Clearly, he was finding it impossible to actually type words and could only reply like a corporate drone in a work group, using a “1” to signal he was still alive.

He was dizzy too.

That proved her intuition was correct.

Just now, everyone inside the Nest had experienced the stacked vertigo of hundreds of spatial transitions in a single second. A normal person subjected to such trauma would likely suffer from sensory dysregulation, or in severe cases, permanent brain damage.

Only people like them, who had undergone professional training, could recover in such a short time.

Xia Mi was the strongest among them, so she recovered the fastest.

But what was the deal with Liao Tianhua?

Everyone else was dizzy, yet he felt nothing at all?

Furthermore, wasn’t Fake Old Jiao supposed to be seducing her to seize the Queen Bee? Now he had tossed her aside to go and seduce Liao Tianhua instead.

Fake Old Jiao was certainly keeping busy.

Xia Mi quietly slipped out of the office and leaned against the meeting room door to eavesdrop on the conversation inside.

At that moment, her hearing reached its peak.

She clearly heard Fake Old Jiao say, “Captain Liao, you are my confidant, the person I value most. If even you won’t support me, what am I supposed to do?”

Liao Tianhua replied, “But that new officer…”

Fake Old Jiao said, “There is something wrong with that officer’s identity. I am using my own methods to test her background. Do not interfere. What you need to do now is go back to your office and focus on the study tasks I assigned you. Do not leave your office.”

Liao Tianhua said, “The notes are already finished.”

Fake Old Jiao said, “Then… go and draft a work plan for 2025. Make it detailed, month by month.”

“Understood,” Liao Tianhua replied.

Hearing that they were finished, Xia Mi quickly pushed open the door to the adjacent room and hid inside.

Xia Mi leaned against the door, listening to Liao Tianhua’s footsteps fade into the distance, a theory forming in her mind.

Fake Old Jiao had usurped Xia Mi’s place in Liao Tianhua’s heart to ensure that Liao Tianhua would follow his every command.

Fake Old Jiao had made Mi Xiangyan and Qiu Hailan suspect Liao Tianhua of trying to seduce Xia Mi to prevent the two of them from meeting.

Aside from the core mission of seducing Xia Mi to seize the Queen Bee, all of Fake Old Jiao’s tactics were directed at Liao Tianhua.

The first layer of meaning behind The Cuckoo Occupying the Magpie’s Nest was this: the “Cuckoo” referred to Fake Old Jiao, the “Magpie” was Liao Tianhua, and the “Nest” was the Nest itself.

The person who had actually manifested the Nest was Liao Tianhua. This imposter, Fake Old Jiao, was merely occupying the Domain that Liao Tianhua had opened!

Translator’s Notes